Garment hangers



Jan. 15, 1963 N. E. BROOKE 3,073,491

GARMENT HANGERS Filed 001;. 21, 1959 INVENTOR. NORMAN E. BROOKE ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 15, 1963 3,073,491 GARMENT HANGERS Norman E. Brooke, 3232 Rittenhonse St. NW., Washington 15, 31C. Filed Oct. 21, 1959, Ser. No. 847,844 3 Claims. (Cl. 223-96) This invention relates to the class of apparel apparatus, and is directed particularly to improvements in garment hangers.

The garment hanger comprising the present invention specifically is a hanger of the type having a pair of coacting jaws by means of which a garment may be gripped to be hung up by a suspension hook to which the jaws are connected, the hanger being of the type commonly known as a trousers hanger although, obviously, it may be used for other garments, for instance, skirts.

There are, of course, many types of gripping garment hangers on the market. However, there are few, if any, which do not have certain drawbacks, or undesirable features. They are either too heavy in construction or have too many parts making them troublesome to manipulate and also expensive to manufacture, or if they do not have a multiplicity of parts which runs up the cost of manufacturing, when they are made of metal in the jaws as well as other parts, in order that they may work properly the metals, especially in the jaws, must be of tempered steel or other metal of a special kind, to have suitable resiliency. All of these features add to the cost of manufacture and of course prevent marketing the hanger for sale at a low price.

It is an object of the present invention, in View of the foregoing, to provide a new garment hanger, embodying a pair of jaws, wherein the jaws are formed in a new and novel manner whereby the desired strength and degree of resiliency are obtained without employing. expensive materials and by the use of suitable material in a novel manner.

Another object is to provide a hanger having the above stated advantages wherein the novel form or design of the jaws, makes possible the use of metal which has not been subjected to tempering processes or any process designed to impart a resiliency to the metal which is not inherent in the metal itself. Accordingly the employment of such metal, which is relatively inexpensive, makes possible the production of a hanger which can be marketed at a low figure.

Still another object is to provide a new garment hanger having a novel spring leg construction to which the gripping jaws are attached, with means for drawing the jaws together and holding them in garment gripping relation in sucha way as to prevent accidental release.

The objects of the invention are attained by forming each of the gripping jaws from a single length of strip metal of a relatively light gauge. The strip employed is of metal having only its own inherent resiliency, by which is meant that the selected metal, after being cast in sheet form from which the strip is taken, or after being cast or rolled in strip form, has not been tempered or in any way treated to give it extra resiliency. Accordingly it is to be understood that in referring hereafter in the specification and claims to strip metal having an inherent resiliency, such a metal, iron or steel or any other, is meant. The initial length of the metal strip selected for a jaw is at least twice the length of the finished jaw, and for forming one type of jaw it may be more than twice the jaw length. The metal strip is bent transversely at two points to form two end portions which are folded in against the inner side of the middle portion and these two end portions are secured, by riveting, welding or the like in end opposed relation, or in overlapped relation to the middle portion. The folding of the end portions is done so as to form a rather wide loop so that each terminal portion has a convergent relation to the part of the middle portion over which it lies, to the place where it is attached to the middle portion. The entire jaw, formed in this manner, is also bowed longitudinally and each jaw is secured at the transverse center to an end of one leg of a two leg spring construction, with the concave sides of the jaws opposed and such legs are attached to a supporting hook and are coupled together by a slide member by means of which the legs, and the jaws, may be drawn together.

The invention will be best understood from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part of the specification with the understanding that the invention is not confined to the detailed description of the drawing but may be changed or modified so long as such changes or modifications mark no material departure from the salient features of the invention as expressed by the appended claims.

In the drawing:

1 FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective of the garment hanger, shown in jaw closed condition and illustrating one embodiment of the jaw structure.

FIGURE 2 is a view in transverse section showing the jaws in separated position, the line of section passing through the lower ends of the spring legs.

FIGURE 3 is a view in perspective of a second jaw form, looking at the outer side of the jaw and showing an end portion of the attached spring leg.

FIGURE 4 isa view in perspective of a third jaw form,

looking at the outer side thereof and showing the inturned end portions of the metal strip overlapped and also showing an end portion of the attached spring leg. Referring now more particularly to the drawing, the present new garment hanger is illustrated in its entirety in the preferred form in FIGURE 1, and is indicated generally by the numeral 10.

The hanger comprises the two jaw members, each generallydesignated 12, of longitudinally bowed or armate form, with the concave sides in opposed relation.

The jaws 12 are attached to a spring leg unit 14, which embodies the two legs 16, which in turn are joined to a suspension unit, or hook, 18.

The spring leg unit 14 and suspension unit 18 are formed preferably from a single length of spring wire of suitable gauge. This is folded intermediate its ends at 20, forming the end or bill of the hook unit which has the two arched, and spaced apart, parallel sides 22 and these are brought together, and twisted together, to form the hook shank 24. I The two ends 26 of the twisted hook shank, merge into the single turn, or single convolution, fiat springs 28 and the end of each spring opposite the shank end 26 merges with the top end of, or continues into, a spring leg 16.

Each spring leg is bent slightly, approximately midway of its ends, as indicated at 30, in such a way as to form the portions a below these bends to stand farther apart than the portions b above the bends, when the legs are joined at their bottom ends to the jaws 12.

Also the bends 3i) are calculated to place the lower portions b in approximately parallel relation, when the legs are drawn together by the slide link coupling 32 therebetween.

A novel feature of the invention which greatly facilitates assembling the parts, resides in the placing of the springs 28, with the convolutions, in the same plane transversely of the jaws, as the legs, so that the connector link can he slipped over the hook, past the shank and the springs and onto'the legs after the legs have been secured to the jaws. The link 32 is in the form of a long closed loop and the two sides thereof are spaced apart when the link is slipped over the hook and down onto the legs as described, after which the sides are squeezed together midway of their ends as shown at c leaving rather wide open ends of the loop as at 34. These wide open and rather long open ends of the link permit a free running of the link on the legs and permit the legs to swing wide apart as shown in FIG. 2 to open the jaws to maximum extent, without the link binding on the legs.

As illustrated each leg 16 is secured at its bottom or free end to the inner side of a jaw member 12 at the transverse center thereof.

Each jaw member 12 is formed from a long strip or piece of strap metal, which has an inherent resiliency but is not an iron or steel metal which has received a tempering treatment to give it a springiness such as is possessed by spring steel.

A particular, and novel, concept of the present invention resides in the discovery that by forming the jaws in the manner shown, and hereinafter described, an inexpensive, untemperedstrap iron of relatively light gauge can be used to form the jaws and the jaws will have a strong resiliency, or springiness equal to that of a good grade of spring steel.

In the form of the jaw shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, a piece of the strap iron of suitable length is taken and a portion of each end is bent or folded in against one side of the middle or intermediate portion. Each of these bent in portions, designated 35, is of a length equal to about one-fourth the total length of the initial piece of material and when bent in as shown these, form inner side portions of the jaw and such two inner side portions will have their ends brought into opposing relation with one another against, or close to the transverse center of the middle or intermediate portion, designated 36, which portion 36 forms, on opposite sides of its transverse center, the outer side portions of the jaw.

In folding the end portions, the fold is made wide, or open, rather than flat, or closed, thus forming a wide bend or loop 37, and each end portion when secured at its terminus to the middle portion of the strap is in convergent relation with that half of the middle portion to which it is secured.

Permanent attachment of the terminus of each portion 35 to the middle portion 36 of the strap may be by weld, rivet or in any other suitable manner, a rivet is here shown as at 38.

The end of each leg 16 is located across and against the inner side of the middle portion of the strap, which forms the outer side portion of the finished jaw, between the opposing ends of the portions 35, and secured, as by a rivet 39, or in any other suitable manner.

Each of the jaws is bent midway of its ends so as to have an arched or bowed form and so as to place the portions 35 on the inner side of the jaw and as shown the jaws thus have the concave sides in opposed relation.

The numeral 40 designates a covering strip or pad of a suitable friction material, which may be a soft crepe rubber, felt or anything else suitable for the purpose, to facilitate gripping and holding a garment against slipping when the jaws have the outer ends pressed together, as will occur when. the slide link is pushed down.

The link can also be caused to assume the lowered position, as illustrated in FIG. 1, to hold the looped ends of the jaws tightly pressed together, or into gripping relation with a garment by manually squeezing the jaws together while holding the legs and hook upright, or the link can be made to shift, or slide, to the released position as shown in FIG. 2, for the opening of the jaws by the same manual squeezing together of the jaws while holding the device inverted.

When the jaws are forced together the spring legs, which are biased to move apart at their lower ends, will be placed under additional spring tension and the spring coil 28 forming a part of each leg adds further to this spring action. Also when the outer ends of the jaws first come together the ends of the spring legs will not have been drawn together to the fullest extent by the link 32 as the link will not have reached its lowermost position. Thus when the link is forced to the lowest position the middle portions of the jaws will be drawn further toward one another tending to flatten out the bowed jaws and bow inward those parts of the outer side portion 36 of the jaw lying on opposite sides of the transverse center thereof and this will be resisted by the portions 35 on the inner sides of such parts of the jaw portion 36 with the result that the entire jaw acquires a strong or stiff springmess.

When the jaws have been drawn to fully closed position, as shown in FIG. 1, the lower portions a of the spring legs will be substantially parallel and thus there is no chance of the coupling link 32 accidently slipping up and releasing the jaws. However when the link is moved upward, when it rides into the bent inwardly converging portions 30, the tendency of tensioned spring legs to move apart will cause the link to ride up quickly until the legs and jaws become fully separated.

Due to the construction of the middle section of the link, it cannot move up past the springs 28, but will be stopped by them, as shown in FIG. 2.

FIGURE 3 shows a slightly different jaw construction, which is generally designated 50. It will be understood that this jaw will be duplicated to form a pair.

The jaw 50 is formed in the same manner as jaw 12, from a single strip of selected metal and includes the folded in end portions 51 which become the inner side portions of the jaw and the middle portion 52, which becomes the outer side portion of the jaw, connected to the inner side portions by the bends 53 formed, in relatively wide bows, as shown.

The free ends of the end or inner side portions 51 are in spaced relation and fixed by riveting to the outer side portion, as at 54, or by welding or in any other suitable manner.

At the transverse center of the outer side portion 52, which is also the transverse center of the jaw, the metal is bent, or bowed, out as at 55, to form the transverse groove 56, which lies between the ends of the portions 51. This groove receives the end of a spring leg 57 and thus the leg does not form a bulge in the covering of friction material (not shown) with which the inner side of the jaw, that is the concave side, is covered. The end of the spring leg is then fixed in the groove in a suitable manner, as by a rivet 53, or by spot welding.

FIGURE 4 shows a third construction of a jaw, generally designated 60, and which is one of a pair to function cooperatively in a hanger.

in this third form the strip of metal selected is somewhat longer than those selected for the jaws 12 and 50 since the end portions 61 of the strip which are turned to lie in opposed relationship with the middle portion 62 of the strip, upon the inner or concave side of the jaw, are arranged in overlapping relationship. The overlapping parts are designated 63. These are fixed to one another and to the portion 62 by rivets 64, or by spot welding or in any other suitable manner; as will be apparent, the end and middle portions 61 and 62 of the metal strip become, respectively, in the finished jaw, the inner and outer side portions thereof.

The several thicknesses of the metal, in the area of the overlapped end parts 63, give added rigidity to the bowed aw.

In this third construction, as in the second, a groove 65 is formed to receive the end of the springleg 66, as shown, by pressing the three thicknesses of the metal, forming therein the outbowing ribs.

The end of the leg 66 is here shown as riveted in place in the groove, the rivet being designated 67. However,

it may be spot welded if preferred or found more desirable.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention provides a new and novel way of forming a garment hanger whereby jaw members of good strength and resiliency are obtained without having to employ specially treated or tempered metal. The construction of the jaw from untempered strip metal, in the manner herein shown and described, results in a construction having the characteristics of a good grade tempered steel without including the higher cost of such material.

I claim:

1. A garment hanger comprising a top portion formed to facilitate suspending the hanger, a pair of spaced spring legs joined to the top portion and biased to normally move apart, a pair of elongate jaw members each attached to a leg and a slide member connected between said legs for drawing the jaw members'and legs together, said jaw members each comprising a length of fiat strip metal formed to provide a long outer side portion and two inner side portions, the inner side portions forming inturned continuations of the ends of the outer side portion, said inner side portions each having an outer end which is relatively widely spaced from the adjacent outer end of the outer side portion of which it forms a continuation and each inner side portion and the adjacent part of the outer side portion converging from their outer ends toward the transverse center of the outer side portion, the inner side portions having inner ends terminating adjacent to said transverse center of the outer side portion, means rigidly securing the inner and outer side portions together at the said inner ends of the inner side portions and adjacent to the said transverse center of the outer side portion, said outer side portion being transversely bent at its transverse center whereby the jaw member has a longitudinal bow, and the longitudinally bowed jaw members being disposed with their concave sides opposed. Y

2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein the said inner ends of said inner side portions are in spaced opposed relation and the end of the adjacent leg lies therebetween and the outer side portion has an inwardly opening groove in which the said end of the leg is secured.

3. The invention according to claim 1, wherein the said inner ends of said inner side portions of each jaw memher are in overlapping relation and the overlapping parts together with the opposing outer side portion are shaped to provide an inwardly opening channel in which the end of the adjacent leg lies and is fixed.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 696,940 Cazier Apr. 8, 1902 1,212,024 Dahlgren Jan. 9, 1917 1,237,223 Schultz Aug. 14, 1917 2,171,680 Baugh Sept. 5, 1939 2,473,898 Muntwyler June 21, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 6,866 Great Britain Apr. 24, 1889 

1. A GARMENT HANGER COMPRISING A TOP PORTION FORMED TO FACILITATE SUSPENDING THE HANGER, A PAIR OF SPACED SPRING LEGS JOINED TO THE TOP PORTION AND BIASED TO NORMALLY MOVE APART, A PAIR OF ELONGATE JAW MEMBERS EACH ATTACHED TO A LEG AND A SLIDE MEMBER CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID LEGS FOR DRAWING THE JAW MEMBERS AND LEGS TOGETHER, SAID JAW MEMBERS EACH COMPRISING A LENGTH OF FLAT STRIP METAL FORMED TO PROVIDE A LONG OUTER SIDE PORTION AND TWO INNER SIDE PORTIONS, THE INNER SIDE PORTIONS FORMING INTURNED CONTINUATIONS OF THE ENDS OF THE OUTER SIDE PORTION, SAID INNER SIDE PORTIONS EACH HAVING AN OUTER END WHICH IS RELATIVELY WIDELY SPACED FROM THE ADJACENT OUTER END OF THE OUTER SIDE PORTION OF WHICH IT FORMS A CONTINUATION AND EACH INNER SIDE PORTION AND THE ADJACENT PART OF THE OUTER SIDE PORTION CONVERGING FROM THEIR OUTER ENDS TOWARD THE TRANSVERSE CENTER OF THE OUTER SIDE 